Cincinnatians - the first voters in the country to decide whether their
municipality should be able to use cameras to catch drivers running red
lights - favor a camera ban. Issue 7, which would prohibit the city from
installing cameras, passed 51 percent to 49 percent.City Council in
August rejected a proposal by the city manager to begin contract
negotiations with a camera company. Mayor Mark Mallory had said he would
veto the ordinance if it had passed.

Still, Councilman Cecil Thomas,
chairman of council's Law & Public Safety committee, said he would
consider resurrecting the issue in his committee - with a safety
emphasis this time rather than a budgetary one. The camera plan came up
late last year when council approved the current budget, which included
$1 million in planned revenue from camera tickets.

Thomas said, however, that it only made sense to wait until after the
election to see what voters think of the cameras before bringing the
issue up again.Proponents of the measure, including NAACP President
Christopher Smitherman and lawyer Chris Finney of the Coalition Opposed
to Additional Spending and Taxes, said they wanted to push for the ban
now so future councils could never put forth another camera proposal.

They believe the cameras erode civil liberties, circumvent a driver's
right to face his accuser and were put forth by city officials as a way
to make money, not to improve safety.

14,015 Petition Signatures Turned into City
for Red Light Cameras Today! --Find out about PR Initiative
Also....
Click Here for Article____________________________________________Paramount, CA shut down its camera
program in 2006 after running a projected $178,000 deficit in two
years. "It just really wasn't what we thought it would be," said
Assistant City Manager John Moreno. Compton also cancelled
its program because of concerns over cost.Click to Read Full Article
______________________________________________

Six cities busted for shortening yellow
light...

Have you ever hit the throttle when
a traffic light turns yellow, and then it turns red faster than
you thought? We know it's happened to us, and for the most part
we thought the problem was our bad timing. In six cities across
these United States, missing a yellow light has less to do with
bad timing, and more to do with shorter amber signals.

Six cities have been busted recently for having an amber light
that lasted less than the minimum timing at an intersection,
and millions of dollars in fines have been collected when drivers
went through the premature red and got caught on camera. Chattanooga,
Tennessee; Dallas, Texas; Springfield, Missouri; Lubbock, Texas;
Nashville, Tennessee; and Union City, California all cut the
timing on their lights, and while some have paid back the fines,
others have not. In Dallas, over $700,000 was collected in a
matter of eight months, and in Tennessee the light timing was
changed at only a few intersections, which just so happen to
be the areas where local law enforcement set up traps.

While the millions of dollars in fines collected in these six
cities is horrible, what's worse is that shorter amber lights
mean more accidents and more injuries on the road.

WeDemandAVote.com Chairman, Daniel Regenold and NAACP President Christopher Smitherman announced Friday, July 13, 2007 that they have received a total of
56,951 Signatures out of 28,750 needed to place the Sales Tax issue on the Ballot in November."Our partnership of 7 organizations has worked hard to make this happen for the Voters of Hamilton County. The voters need a chance to review this $900 million Sales Tax Increase and vote on it!" said Regenold and Smitherman.The petitions now go to Hamilton County Auditor Dustry Rhodes for 10 days for public inspection then on to the Board of Elections for 10 days where signatures will be reviewed against Voter Signatures Cards. A final decision on the number of signatures approved should come around August 10, 2007.